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James Parry (Usenetter)

April 12, 2024

James Parry (born July 13, 1967), commonly known by his nickname and username Kibo /ˈkaɪboʊ/,[1] is a Usenetter[2] known for his sense of humor, various surrealist net pranks,[3] an absurdly long signature,[4] and a machine-assisted knack for "kibozing": joining any thread in which "kibo" was mentioned.[5] His exploits have earned him a multitude of enthusiasts, who celebrate him as the head deity of the parody religion "Kibology", centered on the humor newsgroup alt.religion.kibology.

Photo of Kibo, circa 1993

Background edit

James Parry grew up and lived in Scotia, New York.[6] He showed early computing skills, such as being able to open up and reprogram ROM video game cartridges such as those for the Atari 2600, but was more interested in graphics and artistic pursuits.[citation needed] In this vein, he was initially a computer engineering major at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York, but then moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1990 and attended Emerson College, where he studied videography and graphic design.[7] At that time, he also worked as a typeface designer and for the world.std.com internet service provider.[citation needed] He developed several fonts in use today.[specify] One of his better-known works is the typography for Philip K. Dick's novel Gather Yourselves Together.[8]

Growing fame edit

In the early 1990s, as public awareness grew of the Internet and Usenet, Parry received publicity, including a cover story in Wired magazine and mentions in Playboy and The Times.[8] He became known on Usenet for grepping all occurrences of the term "Kibo"—whether intended to refer to Kibo himself or not—and replying, often in a fanciful manner. A typical exchange:[9]

Mary Rose Campbell wrote: >At CMU, we also have something called Gray Matter in the center of Skibo >(our student union substitute). It's a bunch of shapes, walls, holes, >and steps covered with the same dark gray carpet that's on the floor. >It looks like a giant cat toy. Actually, it's a life-size model of S. Kibo himself, my great great grand-uncle. This was before he evolved past the 'giant metazoic amoeba' stage a few aeons ago. Now he's a trilobite. – K.

This practice became known as kibozing. In 2006, Parry estimated that he had posted "an average of 20 articles a week to alt.religion.kibology during the past 15 years, probably about 500 words of original content per article, that's... seven point eight mmmmillion [sic] words. Equivalent to about 100 books."[10][11]

He is perhaps best known on Usenet for his famous (or infamous) "Happynet Proclamation" (1992), circulated to many newsgroups, some absurdly unrelated, which satirized the endless flamewars on the network, with Parry posing as a godlike being issuing an edict full of in-jokes and humor targets that claimed to unify all news into one glorious totality, "happynet". In the article, Kibo claimed that:[12]

********* HAPPYNET: THE NET THAT'S HAPPIER THAN YOU! ********* UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE ALL-WISE LEADER KIBO, THE NEW NETWORK SHALL BE ORGANIZED THUSLY: Three hierarchies encompassing ALL HUMAN DISCOURSE. => nonbozo.* => bozo.* => megabozo.* Existing groups will be moved into the new organization scheme, resulting in nonbozo.news.announce.newusers, bozo.rec.pets, megabozo.talk.bizarre, nonbozo.comp.virus, bozo.alt.sex, megabozo.alt.fan.lemurs, bozo.postmodern, etc., as determined by scientific measurements of the bozosity of the groups, measured by Leader Kibo's Council On Scientific Bozosity and the faculty of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY), world leaders in bozosity assessment. It is estimated that the breakdown will be thus: 1.0000% nonbozo.* 90.0000% bozo.* 9.0000% megabozo.* (Computations courtesy of Bell Labs) Bozo.* will, of course, be subdivided logically: bozo.nerd.*, bozo.tv.*, bozo.inane.*, bozo.boring.*, bozo.sex.*, bozo.argue.*.

Kibology and alt.religion.kibology edit

Kibology is a parody religion created by Parry, the central figure. Practitioners of Kibology are called 'Kibologists' or (sometimes more disdainfully) 'Kibozos'. Parry began Kibology about 1989. In its early Usenet days, it was centered in the newsgroups talk.bizarre and the Church of the SubGenius group "alt.slack", until the creation of its own Usenet group, alt.religion.kibology[13][14][15] in late 1991. The religious satire of Kibology shares tenets of other parody religions, including similar concepts to the Flying Spaghetti Monster and Invisible Pink Unicorn. The alt.religion.kibology newsgroup remained active through the 1990s, with gradually less emphasis on the joke religion and more satirizing popular culture and internet culture. Other popular regular contributors kept the group active even during "Kibo"'s periodic absences from Usenet. In 2003, the group spawned a band, Interröbang Cartel, which by 2011 had written and recorded more than 80 songs.[16]

Hallmarks edit

The term "bozo" and related jokes like the physics particle the "bozon" were Parry hallmarks. Revisions of the Manifesto were published in 1994[17] and 1998.[18] HappyWeb was introduced in 1999.[19]

In 1992, at age 25 (ten years younger than the constitutional minimum age for election), he launched a spoof campaign for President of the United States.[11]

References edit

  1. ^ Holtzman, David H. (2006). Privacy Lost: How Technology Is Endangering Your Privacy. John Wiley & Sons. p. 131. ISBN 0787994588. James Parry, better known as Kibo
  2. ^ Baczewski, Philip (1994). Philip Baczewski (ed.). Tricks of the Internet Gurus (1 ed.). Indianapolis: Sams Publishing. ISBN 0-672-30599-2. LCCN 94067090. James "Kibo" Parry is a highly prominent Usenet user; one Usenet group named for him, alt.religion.kibology, has at least 88,000 subscribers.
  3. ^ Raymond, Eric S. (1996). The New Hacker's Dictionary. MIT Press. p. 269. ISBN 0262680920.
  4. ^ . Archived from the original on 4 January 2007. Version saved by googlepages dated "5/5/94"
  5. ^ Fisher, Danyel (2003). From Usenet to CoWebs: interacting with social information spaces. Springer. p. 258.
  6. ^ "2. Der Newyork- Croton Aquäduct (Vom Königlich -Preußischen Lieutenant Herrn Schramke, Architekten zu Newyork.)", Journal für die Baukunst Band 19, De Gruyter, pp. 51–77, 1843-12-31, doi:10.1515/9783112391648-002, ISBN 9783112391648, retrieved 2023-07-11
  7. ^ WIRED Staff (1993-04-01). "Kibo Is God". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2020-10-12.
  8. ^ a b James Parry (1998-02-24). "Kibo's Media Scrapbook". kibo.com. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
  9. ^ Message-Id: BKo6Cr.DFp@world.std.com Fri, 6 March 1992 02:17:15 UTC, Google Groups archive of Usenet message
  10. ^ Wired magazine profile, September 1993
  11. ^ a b WIRED Staff (1 April 1993). "Kibo Is God". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2019-07-29.
  12. ^ Message-ID: C4sFz1.Fw2@world.std.com Thu, 1 April 1993 04:47:24 UTC, Google Groups archive of Usenet message
  13. ^ Baczewski, Philip (1994). Philip Baczewski (ed.). Tricks of the Internet Gurus (1 ed.). Indianapolis: Sams Publishing. ISBN 978-0-672-30599-3. LCCN 94067090. one Usenet group named for him, alt.religion.kibology, has at least 88,000 subscribers
  14. ^ Morten T. Højsgaard; Margit Warburg (2005). Religion and cyberspace. Routledge. pp. 55–56. ISBN 978-0-415-35767-8.
  15. ^ Lynch, Stephen (19 April 1996). . Wisconsin State Journal. p. 21. Archived from the original on 7 March 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Interröbang Cartel v3". interrobang.jwgh.org.
  17. ^ "Kibo's HappyNet Manifesto (1994 edition)". www.kibo.com.
  18. ^ "Kibo's HappyNet Manifesto (1998 edition)". www.kibo.com.
  19. ^ "Index of /kibopost/happyweb". www.kibo.com.

External links edit

  • Kibo's website
  • The alt.religion.kibology newsgroup (via Google Groups)
  • [1] – signature
  • Ted Faber Ted Faber's archive of early Kibology postings.

April 12, 2024
james, parry, usenetter, this, article, multiple, issues, please, help, improve, discuss, these, issues, talk, page, learn, when, remove, these, template, messages, this, article, needs, updated, please, help, update, this, article, reflect, recent, events, ne. This article has multiple issues Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page Learn how and when to remove these template messages This article needs to be updated Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information July 2019 This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification Please help by adding reliable sources Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page especially if potentially libelous Find sources James Parry Usenetter news newspapers books scholar JSTOR July 2019 Learn how and when to remove this template message This biography of a living person relies too much on references to primary sources Please help by adding secondary or tertiary sources Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately especially if potentially libelous or harmful Find sources James Parry Usenetter news newspapers books scholar JSTOR July 2019 Learn how and when to remove this template message Learn how and when to remove this template message James Parry born July 13 1967 commonly known by his nickname and username Kibo ˈ k aɪ b oʊ 1 is a Usenetter 2 known for his sense of humor various surrealist net pranks 3 an absurdly long signature 4 and a machine assisted knack for kibozing joining any thread in which kibo was mentioned 5 His exploits have earned him a multitude of enthusiasts who celebrate him as the head deity of the parody religion Kibology centered on the humor newsgroup alt religion kibology Photo of Kibo circa 1993 Contents 1 Background 2 Growing fame 2 1 Kibology and alt religion kibology 3 Hallmarks 4 References 5 External linksBackground editJames Parry grew up and lived in Scotia New York 6 He showed early computing skills such as being able to open up and reprogram ROM video game cartridges such as those for the Atari 2600 but was more interested in graphics and artistic pursuits citation needed In this vein he was initially a computer engineering major at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute RPI in Troy New York but then moved to Boston Massachusetts in 1990 and attended Emerson College where he studied videography and graphic design 7 At that time he also worked as a typeface designer and for the world std com internet service provider citation needed He developed several fonts in use today specify One of his better known works is the typography for Philip K Dick s novel Gather Yourselves Together 8 Growing fame editIn the early 1990s as public awareness grew of the Internet and Usenet Parry received publicity including a cover story in Wired magazine and mentions in Playboy and The Times 8 He became known on Usenet for grepping all occurrences of the term Kibo whether intended to refer to Kibo himself or not and replying often in a fanciful manner A typical exchange 9 Mary Rose Campbell wrote gt At CMU we also have something called Gray Matter in the center of Skibo gt our student union substitute It s a bunch of shapes walls holes gt and steps covered with the same dark gray carpet that s on the floor gt It looks like a giant cat toy Actually it s a life size model of S Kibo himself my great great grand uncle This was before he evolved past the giant metazoic amoeba stage a few aeons ago Now he s a trilobite K This practice became known as kibozing In 2006 Parry estimated that he had posted an average of 20 articles a week to alt religion kibology during the past 15 years probably about 500 words of original content per article that s seven point eight mmmmillion sic words Equivalent to about 100 books 10 11 He is perhaps best known on Usenet for his famous or infamous Happynet Proclamation 1992 circulated to many newsgroups some absurdly unrelated which satirized the endless flamewars on the network with Parry posing as a godlike being issuing an edict full of in jokes and humor targets that claimed to unify all news into one glorious totality happynet In the article Kibo claimed that 12 HAPPYNET THE NET THAT S HAPPIER THAN YOU UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE ALL WISE LEADER KIBO THE NEW NETWORK SHALL BE ORGANIZED THUSLY Three hierarchies encompassing ALL HUMAN DISCOURSE gt nonbozo gt bozo gt megabozo Existing groups will be moved into the new organization scheme resulting in nonbozo news announce newusers bozo rec pets megabozo talk bizarre nonbozo comp virus bozo alt sex megabozo alt fan lemurs bozo postmodern etc as determined by scientific measurements of the bozosity of the groups measured by Leader Kibo s Council On Scientific Bozosity and the faculty of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy NY world leaders in bozosity assessment It is estimated that the breakdown will be thus 1 0000 nonbozo 90 0000 bozo 9 0000 megabozo Computations courtesy of Bell Labs Bozo will of course be subdivided logically bozo nerd bozo tv bozo inane bozo boring bozo sex bozo argue Kibology and alt religion kibology edit Kibology is a parody religion created by Parry the central figure Practitioners of Kibology are called Kibologists or sometimes more disdainfully Kibozos Parry began Kibology about 1989 In its early Usenet days it was centered in the newsgroups talk bizarre and the Church of the SubGenius group alt slack until the creation of its own Usenet group alt religion kibology 13 14 15 in late 1991 The religious satire of Kibology shares tenets of other parody religions including similar concepts to the Flying Spaghetti Monster and Invisible Pink Unicorn The alt religion kibology newsgroup remained active through the 1990s with gradually less emphasis on the joke religion and more satirizing popular culture and internet culture Other popular regular contributors kept the group active even during Kibo s periodic absences from Usenet In 2003 the group spawned a band Interrobang Cartel which by 2011 had written and recorded more than 80 songs 16 Hallmarks editThe term bozo and related jokes like the physics particle the bozon were Parry hallmarks Revisions of the Manifesto were published in 1994 17 and 1998 18 HappyWeb was introduced in 1999 19 In 1992 at age 25 ten years younger than the constitutional minimum age for election he launched a spoof campaign for President of the United States 11 References edit Holtzman David H 2006 Privacy Lost How Technology Is Endangering Your Privacy John Wiley amp Sons p 131 ISBN 0787994588 James Parry better known as Kibo Baczewski Philip 1994 Philip Baczewski ed Tricks of the Internet Gurus 1 ed Indianapolis Sams Publishing ISBN 0 672 30599 2 LCCN 94067090 James Kibo Parry is a highly prominent Usenet user one Usenet group named for him alt religion kibology has at least 88 000 subscribers Raymond Eric S 1996 The New Hacker s Dictionary MIT Press p 269 ISBN 0262680920 Kibo s signature Archived from the original on 4 January 2007 Version saved by googlepages dated 5 5 94 Fisher Danyel 2003 From Usenet to CoWebs interacting with social information spaces Springer p 258 2 Der Newyork Croton Aquaduct Vom Koniglich Preussischen Lieutenant Herrn Schramke Architekten zu Newyork Journal fur die Baukunst Band 19 De Gruyter pp 51 77 1843 12 31 doi 10 1515 9783112391648 002 ISBN 9783112391648 retrieved 2023 07 11 WIRED Staff 1993 04 01 Kibo Is God Wired ISSN 1059 1028 Retrieved 2020 10 12 a b James Parry 1998 02 24 Kibo s Media Scrapbook kibo com Retrieved 2011 03 27 Message Id BKo6Cr DFp world std com Fri 6 March 1992 02 17 15 UTC Google Groups archive of Usenet message Wired magazine profile September 1993 a b WIRED Staff 1 April 1993 Kibo Is God Wired ISSN 1059 1028 Retrieved 2019 07 29 Message ID C4sFz1 Fw2 world std com Thu 1 April 1993 04 47 24 UTC Google Groups archive of Usenet message Baczewski Philip 1994 Philip Baczewski ed Tricks of the Internet Gurus 1 ed Indianapolis Sams Publishing ISBN 978 0 672 30599 3 LCCN 94067090 one Usenet group named for him alt religion kibology has at least 88 000 subscribers Morten T Hojsgaard Margit Warburg 2005 Religion and cyberspace Routledge pp 55 56 ISBN 978 0 415 35767 8 Lynch Stephen 19 April 1996 Meet Kibology a Nothing Kind of Religion Wisconsin State Journal p 21 Archived from the original on 7 March 2020 via Newspapers com Interrobang Cartel v3 interrobang jwgh org Kibo s HappyNet Manifesto 1994 edition www kibo com Kibo s HappyNet Manifesto 1998 edition www kibo com Index of kibopost happyweb www kibo com External links editKibo s website The alt religion kibology newsgroup via Google Groups 1 signature Ted Faber Ted Faber s archive of early Kibology postings Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title James Parry Usenetter amp oldid 1212899775, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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